Rethinking social responsibility of business (Essay Sample)

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Social Responsibility of Business Corporations
Social responsibility is the ethically desirable behavior of entities to prioritize stakeholders’ interests beyond the pure economic or the profit motive. These include the entity's employees, investors, suppliers, communities and the environment in which the business operates. An active holistic involvement of an entity in the stakeholders’ investment is not only socially desirable but also grows to see the business rise in goodwill and create the company’s public confidence. Social responsibility ranges from maintaining good employee relations and ensuring their safety standards, job security and reasonable wages for services offered, environmental responsibility, human rights consideration to invest in community outreach services such as facilitation of grants and donations for charity purposes. It should however be noted that a business’ involvement in social responsibility is not a legal requirement but an ethically accepted norm. Ethical norms are embedded in social responsibility.
Conceptually, where businesses want to maintain high levels of competitiveness in a vast growing and competitive business environment, where profit maximization is highly pursued, the issue of ‘giving back’ to the stakeholders should not be overlooked. A corporations’ success is immensely contributed by the stakeholders who are social beings, among other factors. It is therefore imperative for businesses to develop a strategic plan and implementing relevant policies to see to it that its stakeholder interest are taken into consideration in making sure that proper balance is maintained so that no party becomes disadvantaged.
In the article, “Rethinking Social Responsibility of Business”, we see John Mackey, Friedman and T.J Rodgers engaged in hot exchanges and got signals crossed as each tries to sharply lay out the role of business to its stakeholders. Mackey takes the lead and argues that the customers should be prioritized above the investors and that profit making should be used as a bridge to achieve customer satisfaction. Friedman comes out and criticizes Mackey’s arguments and defines corporations’ social responsibility to be increasing its profits. On the other hand, Rodgers sharply points out that profit maximization should be prioritized before the stakeholders’ interests.
My view concerning the trio’s debate is that corporate bodies need to strike a balance in its struggle to cater for all its stakeholders’ interests in order to ensure that both the business objectives and its responsibility to its stakeholders are maximized proportionately. What is undesirable is where a business sits to enjoy prosperity and thrive in a society without looking back to reward the facilitators of its success. The investors would be thrilled to enjoy viable returns from a corporation they invest in. However, there are stakeholders whom without the free will of a corporation to extend a hand to them cannot demand any social gains from the corporation. These include the environment in which a corporation operates, the communities hosting the corporation and the customers whom after revealing their tastes and preferences to the corporation, cease to have an influence on the use of its resources.
In conclusion, integration of sound ethical practices and socially responsible behavior into the business system will do to them more of good than harm in the long-run. It would also be prudent for corporations to recognize the need for social responsibility not only because it is ethically desirable, but to see it as an inner calling. John Mackey for instance had his corporation actively involved in social responsibility from an inner drive.
References
Ajang, S, Derek, C, Betrand, N. Complying with Corporate Social Responsibility Demands in a Contemporary Context (The Case of Multinational Corporations). 16 Feb 2010, Web 25 Feb 2011. <  HYPERLINK "h...